Limitless - Jim Kwik Page 0,41
longer tried to fit his knowledge and teachings into one box and discarded most of his original training. He openly took influences from areas of fighting outside of Wing Chun and Kung Fu, using them to form a philosophy of martial arts. In a later interview, he said, “I do not believe in styles anymore. I do not believe there is such a thing as the Chinese way of fighting, Japanese way of fighting.”32 Instead, Lee’s approach focused on fighting as a way of ultimate self-expression. “When people come to me to learn, they’re not coming to me to learn to defend themselves. They want to learn to express themselves through movement, anger, or determination.” He believed that the individual is more important than any style or system.
No one remembers Lee for his academic endeavors. Lee is remembered for his tenacity, his ability to defeat his opponents, his philosophy, and for the way he managed to break out of the box of orthodox thinking and bring different styles of fighting together to create an entirely new philosophy. So was he a natural genius, someone born to achieve outsize physical, mental, and philosophical feats?
In The Talent Code, author Daniel Coyle delves into whether talent is innate or whether it can be developed. He argues “greatness isn’t born, it’s grown.” Through deep practice, ignition, and master coaching, anyone can develop a talent so deep that it looks like genius.33
Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon spoke at our annual conference about her father’s approach to memory and learning. She said that, by the time Lee was a film star and notable teacher, he had already achieved thousands upon thousands of hours of deep practice, at least in part because of his early days in fighting on the streets. Later in life, Lee didn’t master the famous one-inch punch in a day. That alone took years of hard repetition and practice. Lee continued to train and condition himself even with a back injury—it was a daily commitment. Ignition is the motivation, the fuel to do what you do. It seems Lee’s initial fuel was the tension he felt as a Chinese American in a place that didn’t accept him as either. Later, his ignition seems to have been his drive for ultimate self-expression. And finally, Lee had training from a master teacher, Yip Man, who himself was trained by several master teachers from the time he was a child. When Lee became his student, he had been teaching Kung Fu for decades.
Lee’s talent was born of a confluence of experiences and circumstances that served him well, although they may have defeated someone else. How many of us would look at a young child with a propensity for fighting and poor grades and predict that he would become a master teacher and philosopher?
Here’s the truth: Genius leaves clues. There is always a method behind what looks like magic.
New belief: Genius is not born; it’s made through deep practice.
KWIK START
How many of the LIEs described above did you believe in before reading this book? Are there any other ones you would add? Write them down.
BEFORE WE MOVE ON
Understanding that these commonly held limiting beliefs are nothing more than myths is an essential part of becoming limitless. When you convince yourself that any of these are true, you’re giving yourself an unnecessary burden to carry around. While these seven are among the most common, keep your radar up for any “conventional wisdom” that has the effect of putting constraints on your potential and examine that wisdom very carefully. In most cases, you’re going to find that such constraints don’t apply to anyone willing to push beyond them. Before going to the next chapter, give these things a try:
Take a good look at some of the mistakes you’ve made. Have you let these define you? How have your feelings about these mistakes changed after reading this chapter?
Find a way to put something you’ve recently learned (even today) into action. Notice the difference it makes when you turn knowledge into power.
Think about a situation where you allowed the opinions of others to sway your actions. How would you approach that same situation differently if the only opinion that mattered was yours? Get my 4Gs to a limitless mindset, including more strategies for replacing limited beliefs, at LimitlessBook.com/resources.
PART III
LIMITLESS MOTIVATION
THE WHY
motivation
mo·ti·va·tion (noun)
The purpose one has for taking action. The energy required for someone to behave in a particular way.
In the movie Limitless, writer Eddie Morra was completely unmotivated, unfocused, and had no